The present invention is related to an operation equipment for the provision of an operation interface inside a vehicle wherein the operation equipment is provided to be used by a multitude of vehicle occupants.
Usually such operation equipment or control elements are provided centrally in the vehicle, e.g. in the area of the center console and hence can be operated by more than one vehicle occupant, e.g. both by the driver and by the passenger. This is unproblematic if the function or the actuation to be caused when operating the control elements are intended for all occupants of the vehicle similarly, e.g. the activation of an interior lighting or passenger compartment illumination located in the headlining and providing an overall illumination of the vehicle interior.
However, there are cases where the actuation to be caused when operating one and the same control element is different, dependent on the origin of the control action applied to the control element, i.e. dependent for example whether the driver is the origin of the control action or whether the passenger is the origin of the control action. As one example, dual view display are mentioned—e.g. disclosed in German patent application DE 10 2005 035 111 A1—that can display different information contents dependent from the direction of view, e.g. simultaneously navigational information for the driver and video information for the passenger. In such a case both occupants of the vehicle have different needs for operating control elements. However, the known devices have especially the drawback to require the touching of a surface of a control element, e.g. by a finger of the vehicle occupant.
It was therefore an object of the present invention to further improve vehicle control elements, such that touching can be avoided and/or to further improve the sensing of the origin of a control action applied to control elements.